New Microsoft offerings for the Everyday Business Owner

In September, Orlando was home to the biggest information technology event hosted by Microsoft: Microsoft Ignite. Twenty-three thousand people were estimated to attend five days of information-packed keynotes, announcements, and sessions, and the event shared so much news that Microsoft offered attendees and those who missed out a book—yes, a book—of news and announcements. Twenty-seven pages detail the latest updates on security, AI and data analytics, IoT and edge computing, Azure, and Microsoft 365.

Out of hundreds of new products, features, and previews, what should the average business owner focus on? We’ll share the top Microsoft offerings most interesting and relevant to today’s small-to-medium-sized and enterprise-sized business owners, whether you speak “IT” or not. Then you can start to think about which tools and technology updates to look out for in the year ahead and what trending ideas and strategies you should keep in mind to stay competitive and support steady business growth.

1. The Open Data Initiative

Perhaps the most important news to take in, the Open Data Initiative (ODI) announced by Microsoft, Adobe, and SAP is all about creating a single model to represent customer data that customers can use to move between systems. This makes it easier for data to move between areas like commerce, operations, and finance. Between these three tech giants, that pretty much has the industry covered. Adobe and SAP have also chosen Azure as their platform for data and have endorsed it for cloud services, among competition between Google and Amazon for the public cloud

2. Smarter & Better Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is improving with added AI (artificial intelligence) tools like a new unified search tool, suggested PowerPoint layouts, new Excel features and more. The Office 2019 retail product was announced, and the company is building hundreds of updates for Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, Excel and the suite’s other applications – our marketing manager is especially excited for a smarter PowerPoint experience!

3. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is the fastest growing product launch in the company’s history. Teams is a collaborative meeting, file sharing and chat tool that’s competing against many different products, such as Slack, Cisco Webex/Teams, and Facebook. This also accompanied more announcements about machine learning, integration, voice, and security.

4. Goodbye to Passwords

Did you hear the news? We’re ditching passwords, and in their place, Azure’s active directory and the Microsoft authenticator app are taking over. This was a key theme from Ignite 2018, which also played a part in the broader theme of security and identity enhancements across all products and services.

5. Co-Authoring

Co-authoring Office 365 documents with LinkedIn connections is one of biggest integrations announcements with LinkedIn as of date; the social media platform was recently purchased by Microsoft. If you have LinkedIn contacts, you can quickly learn details about them and enable real-time collaboration on important documents. I am still picking up my jaw from the floor!

6. Windows Virtual Desktop

Microsoft announced a new Windows virtual desktop, which is essentially a full, integrated Windows 10 desktop available in the Azure cloud through a subscription. Microsoft is taking on other complex solutions with this move, and it’s a good one; as employees become more mobile, they need the flexibility of working on multiple devices, and this offers access to all Windows applications at a lower cost than current solutions on the market.

7. Azure Announcements

We won’t go into full detail about the slew of Azure announcements—because there are literally hundreds—but the main themes surrounding them were:

Extensive security and management, like improved threat protection and Azure blueprints, which makes it easier to deploy repeatable architectures

A new migration methodology, which makes it very easy to assess and migrate to the Azure cloud

8. Cognitive & AI Space

Making AI real for your business is allowing cloud data and AI to come together with accelerated innovation. One thing to put on your to-do list is learning more about how to get the most out of AI for your business—realizing the potential of data and AI to create insights and business opportunities. Microsoft announced the new SQL server and the new Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Cosmos Database, and Azure Databricks. Hyperscaling and high-performance is shooting through the roof with speeds that weren’t available before. Business owners can now spend half as much on tools that easily integrate into their data estate.

9. IoT & Digital Twins

New advances in IoT (Internet of Things) was a big focus of this year’s event. Here’s a few takeaways:

Azure IoT Central is a fast offering that lets you provision in seconds and go hyperscale, providing the blueprint to start an IoT project immediately.

Digital Twins lets you model a real-world scenarios and conduct testing and alerting.

The Azure Sphere is a new generation of highly secure IoT devices that includes the operating system and multiple layers of security to talk to the cloud and enable a whole new range of development and device capabilities.

This list is as condensed as it can be, but there’s still many more solutions available – the key is finding which ones work best for your business and not just adding technology for technology’s sake. Security, collaboration, productivity, AI, and staying relevant in the world of digital transformation were key talking points at this year’s Microsoft Ignite and something that business owners of all sizes should start thinking about. The opportunities to advance your business are astounding, and those not paying attention will be left behind. The economic and ROI model is being turned upside down, but there’s a way for businesses of every size and type to keep up. Speak to Razor Technology to find out what updates are most relevant to you and what solutions you should consider in 2019.

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Jim Stillittano

Partner

In 2003, Jim Stillittano and George Sucher had a vision for Razor Technology that they sketched out on a napkin at a local restaurant in West Conshohocken, across the street from where the headquarters of Razor Technology would soon be established. Being seasoned industry professionals and having 360-degree experience working with Fortune 100 technology companies, it became apparent to both Jim and George that there was a void in the system integration space.

So the duo built a service technology platform that supports enterprise-grade infrastructure solutions by applying an unbiased technology approach, heterogeneous best-of-breed solutions and disruptive subject matter expertise to effectively help our customers manage their IT infrastructures while reducing cost. Moreover, they gathered a world-class team of expert technologists and built a company culture that cultivates innovation.

Today, Razor Technology continues to execute on the original vision and strategy that has since evolved into a full service, end-to-end, IT cloud infrastructure services company with best-in-class capabilities in the following areas: architecture, integration, deployment, and managed services. Most recently, Razor Technology’s consultative advisory organization has helped many enterprise customers transform their IT environments to harness optimal efficiency while integrating best practices and tribal knowledge. What started as an idea and a solution to fill a necessary void grew into a robust organization with offices in Philadelphia and New York, delivering value and full-service solutions.

Under the partnership of Jim Stillittano and George Sucher, Razor Technology has grown into a successful customer-focused company by stepping out of the service provider role and becoming a true partner to our customers.

George Sucher

Partner

In 2003, Jim Stillittano and George Sucher had a vision for Razor Technology that they sketched out on a napkin at a local restaurant in West Conshohocken, across the street from where the headquarters of Razor Technology would soon be established. Being seasoned industry professionals and having 360-degree experience working with Fortune 100 technology companies, it became apparent to both Jim and George that there was a void in the system integration space.

So the duo built a service technology platform that supports enterprise-grade infrastructure solutions by applying an unbiased technology approach, heterogeneous best-of-breed solutions and disruptive subject matter expertise to effectively help our customers manage their IT infrastructures while reducing cost. Moreover, they gathered a world-class team of expert technologists and built a company culture that cultivates innovation.

Today, Razor Technology continues to execute on the original vision and strategy that has since evolved into a full service, end-to-end, IT cloud infrastructure services company with best-in-class capabilities in the following areas: architecture, integration, deployment, and managed services. Most recently, Razor Technology’s consultative advisory organization has helped many enterprise customers transform their IT environments to harness optimal efficiency while integrating best practices and tribal knowledge. What started as an idea and a solution to fill a necessary void grew into a robust organization with offices in Philadelphia and New York, delivering value and full-service solutions.

Under the partnership of Jim Stillittano and George Sucher, Razor Technology has grown into a successful customer-focused company by stepping out of the service provider role and becoming a true partner to our customers.

Ryan Rosenkaimer

Director of Operations

As Director of Operations, Ryan oversees Razor’s managed services and cloud engineering, with a focus on driving positive customer support. Helping shape the overall direction of technology, infrastructure design and solutions for Razor Technology, Ryan applies his deep technical expertise to not only elevate the technical team but help Razor clients achieve value-driven results. Ryan dedicates himself to maintaining a broad and contemporary understanding of information technologies. This includes new technologies, trends, upcoming products and software and paying close attention to best practices as they develop constantly. Ryan has a knack for always staying ahead of the curve and making sure to pass on these ongoing changes in technology to Razor’s customers.

Ryan has over 17 years of experience developing operation teams and supporting the most advanced IT systems. He has extensive experience across Unix/Linux/Windows platforms, Network Security, Cloud Solutions, Virtualization and securing server environments. Prior to joining Razor, Ryan was the VP of Alura, a managed service provider, where he was responsible for developing the overall technology vision for the company and its customer’s. He also oversaw the daily operations of the business and the network operations support teams. He also was a winner of the Philadelphia Business Journal’s 2015 Top IT Professionals in recognition of his background in cloud security solutions.

Tom Reynolds

Director of Technology Solutions

As Director of Technology Solutions, Tom is responsible for ensuring that every Razor customer receives the best possible guidance when making technology decisions. Tom continuously assesses new technologies and monitors industry trends and best practices to ensure that any product or service offered by Razor is best in breed.

Prior to joining Razor, Tom spent over 20 years in technology management within the financial services industry. This allows Tom to bring a highly qualified viewpoint on infrastructure architecture, information security, and IT process to Razor’s customers. Since joining Razor in 2015, Tom has used this experience to improve and expand a key component of Razor’s services portfolio – The Razor FitCheck.

Tom holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from La Salle University, and has maintained a CISSP certification since 2005.

Christopher J. McGrath Sr.

CEO

After 20 years of technology and services company experience in various industries, Christopher joined Razor Technology in March 2013 as Director of Finance. Most recently, he was VP of Operations for Chadds Ford Auto Group. Christopher’s prior roles included Controller positions at both Insight Interactive and Unreal Marketing.

Christopher also served as Senior Accountant for Primavera Systems. In addition to Finance, he also manages facilities and operations for Razor. Christopher holds a BS in Accounting from Saint Joseph’s University and an MBA from Eastern University.

David Rosenthal

VP of Digital Business Technology Solutions

David J. Rosenthal is a passionate leader and expert at applying technology to solve business challenges. After a successful career in sales, IT, marketing, project and product management for firms such as Apple, AT&T / Ameritech, and CDI Corporation, David founded founded Atidan in 2005 to provide technology services and solutions to “Global 2000” clients. In late 2016, David sold Atidan to Razor Technology, a Philadelphia-based end-to-end technology solution provider.

After spending the first three years of Atidan broadly focused on Comcast Corporation, David has worked for global enterprises such as Interpublic Group, Viacom, NBC, Hearst, Time Warner, Reed Elsevier, The New York Times, WPP, Stryker, Gannett/USA Today, Havas, Kaiser Permanente and Microsoft.

David’s consultative, honest and advisory approach to the many small, medium and large customers has won him accolades from both clients and solution partners.

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